Saturday, February 20, 2010

What Are You Willing to Give?


I had a strange dream a few nights ago. I was back in Zambia but things there had changed. The country was now persecuting Christians and there was a warrant out for my arrest. I knew it but I was also supposed to be preaching in a village that day. I felt the turmoil and I tried to make my decision. The dream grew stranger as my mom showed up and had a way to smuggle me out of the country without getting caught so I wouldn't be killed. There it was. I was faced with a life or death situation. I could feel myself agonize over the decision. Did I want to die? No. Would I sacrifice God's calling? Thankfully not. I made the decision to go preach despite knowing that it would be the last time I would see friends and family. I woke up and all I could do was lay there and reflect on what had happened. If it wasn't a dream, would I have made the same decision? I pray that I would and if ever the time ever comes, then I pray that I will. It is my heart's desire to see the lost reach. I'm thankful for the dream because it gave me a look into my heart that I am indeed willing to sacrifice my own life for the love of God. Are you?

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Living on Support

I'm in Chicago at the moment working on finishing up support raising. That's right. I said finishing up. I'm 35% away and God is doing awesome things. In this lifelong journey called support raising, I've decided one time. I think that every believer needs to live off of support for at least 6 months of their lives. I'm not saying this to prove how "hard" living on support it because it's not hard. What it is is faith building. At first, it's scary. Not Freddy Kruger in your dreams scary but it's definately "stomach in knots", "life is out of control" scary. Once you get past the fear though, you then have people speaking unbelief in your life and you HAVE TO stand against it. Once you get past these, you then get to see God do amazing things in your life. The big thing is how much your faith grows. You suddenly start finding yourself believing for the "impossible" and seeing God do the "impossible". I've been told more then once that "it's a shame that your organization or church can't just cover all of your finances." I've disagreed then and completely disagree now. Raising up my support team has been once of the most amazing and life changing experiences of my life. I couldn't ask for a better team to come around me and above all I now know that God truly does provide for every need in our lives despite whatever outside circumstances we come up against. Just believe and trust in Him!